Instruction Manual for Swallowing

Welcome to the surreal, misshapen universe of Adam Marek’s first
collection; a bestiary of hybrids from the techno-crazed future and
mythical past; a users’ guide to the seemingly obvious (and the world of
illogic implicit within it). Whether fantastical or everyday in
setting, Marek’s stories lead us down to the engine room just beneath
modern consciousness, a place of both atavism and familiarity, where the
body is fluid, the spirit mechanised, and beasts often tell us more
about our humanity than anything we can teach ourselves.

Press

'There's a transgressive thrill to Adam Marek's debut collection of
short stories that's not simply a result of the potency of the subject
matter... delightful.' -The Guardian

'I had been writing, badly, and then I picked up Marek’s Instruction Manual and read the first story in one gulp in the bookshop and thought: "Stories can be like that?" Smart, funny, spawned from Marek’s characteristically wicked imagination and his preoccupation with weird science...' - Holly Dawson